Jirokichi The Rat
by Jirokichi
Summary: A story about my Gelert Jirokichi and I suck at summaries so read it and see for youreself. Reviews encouraged but leave the flame throwers at the door please... *UPDATE! Chapter 3 added...*
1. The Beginning

**Jirokichi The Rat**

DISCLAIMER-I don't own Neopets so don't bother suing me, I heve nothing you want/

A/N-My Neopets account name is Satoshi_chan and this story is about me and my actual Neopets. Go look us up if you want. Oh and this is my first fan fic of any kind so be nice when you review...

My name is Jirokichi and I'm a blue Gelert. Well, Jirokichi is my official name though I have several nicnames. My owner and my three brothers call me Jiro, though almost everyone else I have ever come into contact with calls me Jirokichi the Rat. Needless to say it's not exactly a flattering nicname, and the story of how I got that name isn't a pleasant one. But my owner says that thoes who forget history are doomed to repeat it, so I guess it's for the better.

It all started back on the day when I was born. Satoshi_chan, my owner, brought me home from the Creation Center to meet my three brothers. Two of my brothers were Gelerts as well, Taraku_chan was painted starry and Vegiito_chan was red. But my oldest brother, Yakkul_chan, was a fire Lupe. He was the only pet that Satoshi trained to fight in the Battledome and he was the only pet who regularly got to read books. The first time I saw him I took one look at his huge yellow eyes and ran the other way as fast as my little newborn legs could carry me. In the process I knoched over a living room lamp. The bulb shattered and almost caught on fire. Thankfully it didn't ignite but I remember Satoshi picking me up, yelling words I could not yet understand at me and taking me back to my bedroom. It really wasn't a big deal and the incident was soon forgotton but if any of us knew what was to come we would have taken it much more seriously.

Over the next couple of days I learned to speak. Satoshi taught me that I was a species of Neopet called a Gelert and that she was a human and my owner. She taught me the names of everything in the Apartment where we lived (Satoshi hadn't built a Neohome yet) and eventually she took me to all the worlds in Neopia and taught me all about them. And it wasn't long before I figured out my place in the family. Satoshi herself was undisputidly in charge; she had a terrible temper and not even Yakkul dared disobey her. Yakkul was the highers ranking pet so to speak, he had a bad temper like Satoshi and was used to getting his way. Taraku tended to keep to himself most of the time and he spent most of his time with Michidzure, his pet Snowbunny. Vegiito was the youngest next to me and more then a bit immature. His favorite hobby was watching cartoons on T.V. and his room was full of plushies and other toys. As for me, I was the last in line. I was just a little Gelert pup and Satoshi made it crystal clear that my brothers came first. It wasn't that she didn't love my brothers more then she loved me, it's just that I was the youngest of the family and Satoshi believed that I should defer to my brothers, which I did. Well, I should say that the three of us deferred to Yakkul. We watched the T.V. shows Yakkui wanted to watch, played the games Yakkul wanted to play, went where Yakkul wanted to go and...well you get the idea. Taraku and Vegiito didn't seem to have a problem with this but I hated it. So I ended up spending most of my time anone in my room. Satoshi would still ask me do do things woth the family at first but since I almost always refused she eventually gave up. I loved Satoshi and my brothers but I was sick of being last all the time. I was sick of being "that pup". I was sick of always having to do what everyone else wanted and never getting to excercise my own will. So most of the time I just stayed in my room alone most of the time.

One evening I was sitting in my room as usual staring out my window at the stars. Thats what I did most nights, stare up at the stars. They looked so small and yet Satoshi had told me that they were actually huge balls of gas burning billions of miles away. I was contemplating this when I heard Satoshi calling from the kitchen. "Jirokichi, get in here! We need to talk!" "Comming!" I went to the kitchen where Satoshi was waiting for me along with my three brothers. "Yakkul has a Battledome fight in an hour." she said simply. "Your'e brothers are comming along to watch and cheer him on. You stay here untill we get back. No matter what, don't leave the apartment, understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

Good. Lets go, guys." satoshi and my brothers left the apartment, locking the door behind them. I cheacked the clock, 7:23 p.m. They wouldn't ba back for a while yet. After Yakkul's battledome fight they would either go out to eat to celebrate his victory or go buy him some battledome equipment to help him win if he lost. But the latter rarely happenes. Satoshi was careful to match Yakkul with opponents slightly weaker then himself, which meant that he rerely lost a fight. So after Yakkul won they would all go out to celebrate and I would be alone here.

I went back to my room to continue star-gazeing but by this time the sky had almost completly clouded over. I sighed, turned out my bedroom light and crawled into bed. I know it was early but I went to bed early every night. My favorite time of the day was the time I was asleep beacuse I could forget everything. I could enter my own world where my life was my own and I didn't have to be second to anyone. Not Satoshi, not Yakkul, noone. But this night I couldn't sleep. I lay there in the dark for what seemed like hours, but when I cheaked the clock it was only nine. I looked out the window. It had started snowing, and a light coating ow white now coverd everything outside. It was then I noticed a small ploom of smoke on the horizon. It was barely noticible, but it was there. The apartment building in which my family lived was right in the middle of Neopia Central's residential district, and the only explination for the smoke I could think of was that someone's Neohome was on fire. My curiosity was peaked and I decided to go have a look. I knew that Satoshi had instructed me not to leave the apartment but if I could get back before she did she would never know. If I had known what was about to happen I would have never left the apartment that night but of course I didn't know, and the events of that night are seered into my memory forever.

I left the apartment building and began running twards the smoke on the horizon, which was growing bigger as I ran. I knew the fire was probably growing and I shouldn't go anywhere near it but I was still young and young pups rarely think rationally in these situations. So I continued twards the fire untill I saw the burning Neohome. Fire turcks surrounded it and Lupe firefighters were working despratly to put the flames out. They didn't notice me at first beacuse they were totally preoccupied with the task at hand, but eventually one of the firefighters saw me sitting by the baracade watching. One of them ordered me to leave. It was nearly eleven thirty by that time and I was scared that Satoshi and my brothers had already arrived home. But as I was leaving I saw a young boy and his Wocky sitting on the curb of the street crying. When I asked what was wrong the Wocky informed me that it was his owner's Neohome that was burning and that his sister, a young Kacheek, was still trapped inside the burning Neohome.

Why I did what I did I can not tell you but I fellt that I had to rescue the trapped Kacheek. Mabye I thought if I did I would be hailed as a hero and I would be the top Neopet in the family, above even Yakkul. And besides, what good Neopian wouldn't want to help? So I ran back to the Neohome, jumped the Lupe Firefighter's baracades and made it into the burning structure before the firefighters could stop me. It was pich black inside and the smoke was so thick I could barely breathe. I felt my way to the starecase, then I heard shouts of "We've got the Kacheek out! She's safe! Now we have to get in there and get that damn fool Gelert out of there!" It was then that I came to my senses and realized that I had made a mistake. I began making my way back to the door through the smoke. As I walked I could just barely see the outline of three Lupe firefighters comming twards me. By this time my lungs were filled with smoke and I could barely breathe. I watched the firefightes comming twards me as I sunk to the ground and passed out.

When I awoke I was lying on the sidewalk with an oxygyn mask over my muzzle. A group of Lupe firefighters were standing over me. I tried to sit up but they forced me back down.

You need rest and air. Don't try to move just yet. Now thwn, what is your'e name and what in the name of the Faerie Queen posessed you to run into a burning Neohome?

I coughed as I answered. My name is Jirokichi and I wanted to be..." I coughed again and took another big breath of oxygyn. "To be a hero so my owner would love me as much as she loves my brothers." 

The head firefighter frowned. "Well, that was a damn stupid thing you just did. Don't you realize you could have been killed?"

Yes, Sir. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Well see to it that you think clearly from now on. Now, how are you feeling. Do you need to go to the hospital, or are you feeling well enough to get home on your'e own?"

I took the oxygyn mask off my face and sat up. "I'll be fine, sir. Hey, do you know what time it is?"

"It's two thirty in the morning. I'll bat your'e owner is worried sick about you...

I sprang up onto my four feet. "SATOSHI IS GOING TO KILL ME! Sir, thank you for everything and I'll never do anything this stupid again! Now I've got to get home before my owner gets rteally mad! Thank you again and good by!"

Without so much as another word to the firefighters to whom I now owed my life I began running home as fast as I could. My lungs hadn't fully recovered yet so I got tired quickly but I couldn't waste time catching my breath. Satoshi was going to be absolutly livid and I hated to think about what was going to happen to me when I got home.

I arrived at the apartment building and ran up to the third floor, the floor that our apartment was on. I rwached home, apartment 312, and stopped outside the door to finally catch my breath and think of a way to explain what had happenes to Satoshi. After five minutes or so I finally opened the door. Satoshi was standing there waiting. Sha had heard me on the other side of the door and was ready when I entered the apartment.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?" Satoshi was yelling at the top of her voice. "YOUR'E BROTHERS AND I HAVE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR YOU! YAKKUL IS OUT SEARCHING RIGHT NOW! EXPLAIN YOURESELF!"

For a minute I just sat there without saying a word. I was tired, out of breath, covered in ash and soot, I amelled like smoke, and I knew that there was no way I could possibly explain this away to Satoshi. Finally I just said, "I did something really stupid and I'm sorry. I'l tell you all about it in the morning but noe can I please just get some sleep?

The look on Satoshi's face softened somewhat and she nodded. "Sure. You look like you've been through enough for one night. But don't think you arn't going to be punnished. You deliberatly disobeyed me. You understand?" Now, clean youreself up and get to bed. I'm going to find Yakkul and tell him youre safe. And you had better be here when I get back."

Yes, Ma'am." Satoshi left to find Yakkul and I took a bath to wash the ash off my body and after I had dried off I climbed into bed. I had gotten off easy that night but I knew that tomorrow all hell was going to break loose. Satoshi obviously was not happy to say the least, and when Satoshi lost her temper...well...it was beat not to think about it. I pulled the covers over my head and eventually fell asleep, dreading the comming day.

**TOO BE CONTINUED...**


	2. When Tradgedy Strikes

Disclaimer-see previous chapter.

The next morning I woke up feeling better then I had the previous night, untill I rememberd that I still had lots of explaining left to do. I stared up at into the darkness of my room wondering what punishment Satoshi would give me when I heard the door knob start to turn. The room was suddenly filled with light as Satoshi entered the room and shut the door behind her. "So, your'e finally awake. Your'e brothers and I were wondering when you were going to wake up."

This was a good sighn. Satoshi didn't sound preticularly angry, in fact she seemed to be in a fairly calm mood. I turned my head to look at the clock on my nightstand and saw that it was just after eleven in the morning. "How come you let me sleep so late?" I asked as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Well, you had a rough night last night. The fire department called this morning and explained to me what happened. I have to admit that was a brave thing you did. Incredably stupid, but brave none the less. What posessed you to run into a burning Neohome, anyway?"

That was a good question. Looking back on the events of the previous night what I really had no good reason to do what I did. Not even Yakkul would do something that stupid.

I don't know I guess. I guess I just wanted to be just like Yakkul is all."

Oh really? Well Yakkul would have more sense then to do what you did. And just to let you know your'e grounded for the next week. Yakkul has another battle tonite so Taraku is going to stay home and keep an eye on you. Now come on and get something to eat. I think your'e brothers saved you dome breakfast.

That night Satoshi, Yakkul and Vegiito headed for the battledome leaving me and Taraku home. I have to admit it was nice not to be left completly alone for once, though I might as well have been alone since Taraku, ever the loner, spent all his time on the couch with Michidzure watching T.V. He barely spoke to me the entire night, that was untill he saw the Neopia Channel 1 nightly news.

I was already asleep (it was ten at night, after all) when I felt someone shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes Taraku was standing over me, a worried look on his face. "Get up, Jiro. Come see whats on the T.V., quick!"

"What is it?"

"Just come and look. Thers no time to explain."

Yawning I followed Taraku into the living room. The words "NEOPIA 1 NEWS ALRET" flashed accross the bottom of the screen in huge capital letters. Below that in slightly smaller print were the words, "Battledome roof collap eses,injuries, casualties unknown". The rest of the screen was filled with a live shot odf the Battledome. The huge dome roof had indeed completly caved in, and part of the walls had also come down.

Thats where Satoshi and our brothers are". Taraku said quietly. I nodded and continued to stare at the screen and listen to the news anchor giving a live report.

For those of you just joining us we have a major breaking story unfolding tonite. The roof of the Battledome, as you can see on your'e screen, has completly caved in. This happenes just about fifteen minutes or so ago, just as we here at Neopia Channel 1 were preparing for tonite's news cast. The Neopian Emergency Management Service is on the scene but so far we have limited information on any injuries or casualties. NEMS is schedualed to hold a press confrence in about a half hour or so which we will bring to you live as soon as it happenes...

At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Yes I detested being the lowest ranking pet in the family but I loved my owner and brothers and ceartainly wished them no harm. My eyes drifted to the telephone hanging on the kitchen wall. If Satoshi was alright she would have ceartainly called home by now. I looked back at the T.V. screen as the images of the ruined Battledome were intercut with shots of the news anchor, a green Uni, sitting at his desk giving his report.

Taraku, we have do do something!" I exclaimed suddenly. "We can't just sit here, we have to go and see if they're alright!" I left up and started running for the door. Taraku grabbed me by the ear and pulled me back.

Oh no you don't. Your'e not going to play the hero again, not after last night! I'm going down there to see whats going on for my self and you are going to stay right here in the apartment where it's safe."

"Byt Taraku...

Don't argue with me! Look, if you get youre'self into trouble again Satoshi will ba angry with me...

We don't even know that Satoshi is alright!

DON'T SAY THAT! Satoshi is just fine, and so are Yakkul and Vegiito! Look, if you really want to come with you can but you have to stay by me no matter what and do exactly as I say, alright?

I nodded. "O.K. Do you really think they are alright>

Taraku looked like he wanted to slap me for even making the suggestion that something bad had happened to our owner and brothers. "Of course I do. Now come on, lets get going!"

Taraku and I left the apartment building and ran twards what was left of the Battledome. The pictures on T.V. could never have prepared m,e for what I saw when we arrived. Another wall had collasped and thick black smoke and debris of all kinds filled the air. Humans and Neopets were milling aimlessly about, some were badly injured. Ambulance crews were attending to the injured and transporting them to the Neopian hospital, and rescue workers roamed what was left of the Battledome looking for suvivors. Taraku and I made the rounds of all the ambulances on the scene looking for Satoshi or our brothers but after over an hour of searching we had found no sighn of them. It was beginning to seem hopeless when we heard a voice behind us.

"You two are looking for a fire Lupe?

Taraku and I spun arround to see a small boy holding a yellow Skeith plushie tightly in his hands. He had some bruises on his face and he was covered in black ash but otherwise he seemed fine. He had obviously been crying though, and he stared at the two of us with a blank, far away look in his eyes.

"Yes we are looking for a fire Lupe!" Taraku exclaimed. "Our brother, Yakkul_chan! He was here with our owner, Satoshi_chan and out other brother, a red Gelert named Vegiito_chan! Have you seen them?"

The boy sat down on the ground and nodded slowly as he wiped a gresh tear from his eye. "Yakkul_chan was schedualed to fight my Skeith but before the fight started the roof came down. Lucky for me I was at the concession stand so I got out in time but my Skeith..." The boy hugged the Skeith plushie and began sobbing uncontrolably. Taraku put a paw on his shoulder to calm him down."

"Listen, I'm sure your'e Skeith is alright. Now listen to me beacuse this is very important. Do you know where Yakkul_chan was when the roof collasped?"?

The boy shook his head no and started sobbing again.

Taraku reassured him that his Skeith was probably just fine and then we left the boy to his emotions. By this time I felt like crying myself. We had been here for over an hour and still no sighn of Satoshi, Yakkul or Vegiito. The situation seemed completly hopeless. Finally Toraku turned to me and shook his head.

"Well Jiro, the only thing we can do now is to go to the hospital and see if they have already have been taken there. If you don't mind though, I want to go alone. Your'e just a pup and you've been through enough for one night. I want you to go back to the apartment and wait there. I'll call if I find them, O.K.?"

I just nodded in response. Taraku was right. I was still a pup and the best thing I could do for Satoshi and my brothers was to let Toraku handle the situation. He knew what to do and esids, no Neopet, especially as young as I was then, should be exposed to a situation like this. So the two of us went our seaprate ways. Taraku got a ride to the hospitan in a Chia Police car and I started walking twards home. Thats when I got the idea.

I know I should have learned my lesson from the previous night but most young Neopets. much like young humans, don't learn easily. And besids, this was no stranger's burning Neohome. My owner and brothers were missing, possibly seriously hurt, and I wanted do do everything in my power to help. And the one thing I coyuld do was sniff through the rubble that was the Battledome for survivors.

Now one thing you have to understand about Gelerts is that we have an extrordinary sense of smell, the best of any Neopet in fact. We rarely get to put this trait to good use, but in a situation such as this one it was not only conveniont to have but could actually save lives. There were already several Gelerts siffing through the rubble already, most of them were volunteers who had seen the news report and had come to help. I knew that even though I was ypung I could still be of help so I ran twards the ruined Battledome untill I came to the poliece barrier. Who should I meet there but one of the Lupe firefighters that hd saved my life last night.

"You again? What are you doing here? Didn't you learn anything from last night?"

I explained the situation to him and told him that I wanted to volunteer to search the rubble for survivors. He was at first reluctant to let me help but he finally took me to see the rescue coordinator, a bit red Lupe wearing firefighting gear. He stared at me with a disbeliving glare as I told him the story. When I weas finished he slowly nodded.

"Normally we wouldn't let a pet as young as you volunteer, it's too dangerous. But since your'e owner and brothers might still be in there I'm prepared to make an exception. I'm going to assighn you to search the north side of the structure. You will be fitted with a walkie-talkie and a supply of oxygyn incase you have trouble breathing in there. Any questions?"

"No, sir."

I was then fitted with my equipment and taken to the north side of the ruined building. What had once been the battledome was now a mess of meatal beams that had once held the roof up, spectator seats, and other debris. Even though I had been fitted with special boots to protect my feet I still had trouble walking. I lowered my nose to the ground and began to sniff, but found nothing. I slowly worked my way up to the north wall, one of only two walls left standing, but still found nothing. After about thirty minutes I finally lifted my head and pulled the oxygyn mask over my face to get a breath of fresh air. The oxygyn tank on my back was heavy but I was definatly glad it was there. After I caught my breath I resumed searching. I eventually made my way out of the stands and into the rooms under the stands where Battledome competadors prepared for their fights. I was searching what was left of one of the locker rooms when my nose suddenly filled with smoke. I lifted my head to sneeze, and in the process I accidently bumped into the lockers. The lockers fell back to the ground and hit one of the support collums still holding the noth wall up. Before I knew what was happening a large portion of the wall crumbled and went falling onto the street outside...

**TOO BE CONTINUED...**


	3. New friends?

pAs soon as I heard the wall begin to crumble I started running. I ran as fast as I couls go and within minutes I found myself back in the stands agaiin. I turned to slowly look back at the north wall, and to my amazement the entire thing hadn't come falling down. I sighed a sigh of relief and was about to go back to work when I heard voices on my walkie-talike.p"What the hell just happened?"p"We've had a partial collapse of the northern wall. We need a crew on the street now to clear the debries and attend to the injured."P"Roger that. Teams alpha and beta you heard him, lets get moving. All prsonal clear the northern section of the structure;it's no longer safe to search there. The rest of that wall could come down at any minute. If there are any suvivors left there they have little to no chance now. May God have mercy on all of them."pThe dravity of what I had just done, accidental as it had been, hit me at that moment. Beacuse of me there were people injured on the street and if there were any survivors left near the wall they would likely never be found now. And it was my fault. If anyone ever found out that it was mu fault... No, that would never happen. There was no way they could know. All I had to was act normal and they would never suspect a thing. But first thing was first, I had to get out. Once I was safe I could worry about what to do from there./p   
  
pI left the Battledome ruins, turned my equipment in and began to head for home. I had done enough damage for one night and besids, if Taraku called from the hospital and I wasn't there I was going to be in even more trouble. I started walking when I heard a voice behind me.pHey pup, where the hell do you think your'e going?"pI turned arround to see an angry Lupe firefighter, his green fur stained black from the dust and debris, standing behind me. "Are you Jirokichi?"p"Yes, sir.pThe Jirokichi who causewd part of the north wall to collapse?"pI froze. iHow could he know?/iThen it dawned on me. The walkie-talkie, they must have heard the entire thing on their walike-talkies! They knew exactly what had happened and who was responsible for it. I had really done it now. Why hadn't I done as Taraku had orderd and just gone right home?p"You ceartainly did some damage, didn't you?"/p All I could do was nod at the firefighter and stare blankly at the ground. There was no use trying to explain that it had it had all just been a terrible accident, he would never believe me. Then another thought struck me, iWhat if Satoshi, Yakkul and Vegiito had been trapped under that wall?!/i I felt like throwing up.p"Do you know what is going to happen to you now?" The tone of the firefighters voice was clod and completly uncaring. He stared at me with his glowing yellow eyes and the expression on his face told me, as if I already didn't know, that I was doomed.p"No sir, I don't know."p"Well then, let's go see the chief of the Chia Police. He will be more then happy to lay it all out on the line for you."p"Your'e arresting me?"pFirefighters don't have the power to arrest people, you know that. But you would be wise to turn your'e self in and save the police the trouble of capturing you. Besids, I think they only want you for questioning at the monent. We all realise that your'e still just a pup and that you should never have been allowed to help in the search but..."p"It was all an accident, I swear!"/p   
  
p"Let me finish. We realise that but accident or not people were still hurt. Someone has to pay. Now where is your'e owner?pI started ctying. The entire situation was just too much for me to handle and I knew it was only going to get worse before it got better. Qhy did this kind of thing always end up happening to me? I always try to do the right thing-or at least what I think is the right thing-and it always ends up blowing up in my face like this. My lega gave out from under me and I collasped right there in the street and began to sob. The firefighter just stood there and stared; it was painfully obvious that he was very uncomfortable to say the least and didn;t really know how to act in thses situations. Finally he did the only thing he could think of. He picked me up on the ground by the back of my neck and roughly set me on the ground.p"I'm only going to ask you this one more time. Where is your'e owner?"pBefore I had the chance to respond there was a tremendour roar from the robble that had once been the Battledome. Searchers and firefighters were running from the once grand building as fast as they cound as a massive dust cloud rose up from behind them. The remaining walls had now completly collasped, and any survivors were now almost ceartainly dead.pWithout so much as a word the firefighter grabbed hold of my ear and started running. The croud of fleeing rescue workers soon caught up with us and he lost his grip. I fell onto the hard pavement and started to run on my own. I managed to make it a few feet before I was knocked to the ground and almost trampled to death. I could see the huge debris cloud comming, ready to cholk the life out of me when I realised that this was my chance. I could escape amidst all the chaos and excape my punishment (and after all this was all my fault). I started running again, although this time I ran right through the crowd and ducked into the nearest ally way. It was then that I realised how tired, dirty and hungry I was. It was then that I realised that I could never go back, If I did I would surely be put in prison for life for this. And on top of that Satoshi would probably have to pay a huge fine-Satoshi! I still had no idea what had happened to her or my brothers! Once again I collasped on the ground and sobbed myself to sleep right there. "Satoshi...I'm sorry...please forgive me..."p"I think he's starting to come arround, guys. Come see."p"Poor pup. Looke like he's been to Hell and back. I wonder what his name is."pYeah, he looks pretty bad, al right. Well, at least the injuries to his feet are starting to heal."p"Back of you guys, give him some room! He's starting to wake up!"pI coughed and struggled to open my eyes so I could find the source of the strange voices I had just heard. I was laying on something soft, it felt like a pile of blankets, and my feet and ear hurt like you wouldn't believe. And then there were the voices, who did they belong to? And where was I? Finally I was able to open my eyes. Standing over me was a red Kacheek, a blue Wocky and a green Aisha. The Kacheek smiled down at me when she saw my eyes open.pGreat, your'e awake! We've been wondering when ypu were going to come arround."p"You've been out cold ever since we found you in that cold ally five days ago." the Wocky added.iFive days?/i I had been uncouncious for Five days? Judging by the splitting headache I now had it felt like a lot longer then that. And my feet still hurt, especially my right forepaw. My right ear hurt for some reason as well. But at least now I seemed to be somewhere relativly safe, even though I was surrounded by complete strangers in a place I had never seen berofr in my entire life.pRelax pup, your'e safe with us." the Kacheek said in the chrrey voice that only Kacheeks use. "Hey I know, how about a cup of nice hot borovan to warm you up? We have a few more extra blankets if your'e cold and a couple of pillows as well."p"A pillow would be nice. I have a terrible headache...p"No problem! You guys watch over our guest whail I go get the pillow, O.K.?" The Kacheek left the room to get the pillow. The other two, the Wocky and the Aisha supplied me with a couple more blankets to cover up with and a cup of hot borovan to fill me up. As I lay there I couldn't help but wonder where I was, where my family was, who these strange pets were and why they were being so nice to me. All thses thoughts were running wild in my head as the Kacheek gently lifted my head and put a pillow behind it. I sighed, tried to put my mind to rest and drifted back to sleep...bTOO BE CONTINUED.../b 


End file.
